Football Footnotes: 3 keys for Steelers defense against Raiders

After three great games from the defense to start 2024, the Pittsburgh Steelers (3-2) have been scuffling on that side of the ball of late.

In the two recent losses to the Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys, the Steelers defense has given up a total of 803 yards and a combined 24 points in the fourth quarter.

If the Steelers are to reverse that trend and stop the bleeding after back-to-back defeats, the defense needs to step up against the Las Vegas Raiders’ (2-3) 24th-ranked offense (297 yards per game).

Here are three key improvements they have to make in order to accomplish that goal in this week’s “Football Footnotes.”

• If you are skeptical of Mike Tomlin’s explanation about why George Pickens got fewer snaps than usual last week, you may want to look at the defensive players explaining why things have wobbled on that side of the ball the last two outings.

“Miscommunication,” safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said of the defense on third downs. “There were a couple of times when we were playing ‘check ball,’ and a couple of guys were playing different things. People are not in the right spots.”

I often roll my eyes when I hear “miscommunication” advanced as a catch-all excuse for problems on defense. It tends to be a way of explaining everything while actually explaining nothing.

“Communication the last two weeks has hit us on some things,” rookie linebacker Payton Wilson said this week. “We’ve seen some busts, some chunk plays, some long plays that just start with communication.”

As I was saying, “Communication breakdown. It’s always the same. I’m having a nervous breakdown. Drive me insane.”

I’m also dubious of some of the explanations as to why the communication was so bad on defense against the Cowboys and Colts.

One of them has been that there are a lot of new pieces in the back seven of the defense.

OK, but Patrick Queen, Wilson, Donte Jackson, Beanie Bishop and DeShon Elliott were even newer to the system in Weeks 1-3, yet the defense was great.

Now, inthe last two weeks, it has gotten worse. Why?

Another explanation was that the crowd noise at home while the defense was on the field was tough to deal with.

“I love Acrisure Stadium. It is an asset to us. It makes things challenging for opposingoffenses,” Tomlin said. “We respect it, but it also makes things challenging from a communication standpoint for us as a defense. And I didn’t think our communication at times was up to snuff. I think that that was a component of it as well.”

OK, but it was also loud when the Steelers played the Los Angeles Chargers two weeks earlier, and the defense only gave up 10 points.

Not to mention the Steelers fans were so loud in Atlanta that the Falcons had to go to a silent count on offense. Again, the Steelers yielded just 10 points. So that doesn’t add up.

But if communication really is the problem, fix it and stop letting it be an excuse.

• T.J. Watt needs to dominate. Not just have a good game. Dominate.

Thayer Munford is the usual starter at right tackle for Las Vegas. But he has missed the past two games with knee and ankle injuries. He was a limited practice participant Wednesday and Thursday. The other right tackle is rookie DJ Glaze, who has allowed two sacks this season. Kolton Miller on the left side missed practice Wednesday and was limited Thursday.

Watt needs to exploit that combination of youth and/or injury. He has 4.5 sacks on the season, two behind NFL leader Aidan Hutchinson (Detroit).

Sure, the Raiders will likely keep backs and tight ends in to chip Watt along the way. But if Vegas’ Brock Bowers is being asked to stay in and help to block Watt — or if he is kept off the field for a different blocking tight end — that’s great news for the Steelers.

With Davante Adams missing time, Bowers leads the team with 28 catches and 313 yards.

Brock Bowers 57 yarder!! ????

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— NFL (@NFL) October 6, 2024

It also would not be a bad idea if the Steelers blitz more often. They have some talented blitzers at the inside linebacker position with Queen, Wilson and Elandon Roberts. But we haven’t seen them deployed in that capacity very much.

And it doesn’t sound like we will.

“You’ve got to be careful in terms of overdoing it, in terms of just throwing stuff out there to try to get something done. We still hold to our principles here. We’ll pressure, but we also like the four-man rush when we get in some situations and let our guys win. So, I don’t think that’s going to change a whole lot,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said.

Pro Football Reference tracks the Steelers at a blitz rate of 19.4%. That’s 28th in the NFL.

• Meanwhile, the Steelers need to figure out what to do at right outside linebacker. Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig and DeMarvin Leal are all injured.

That leaves a few other options. Jeremiah Moon played 28 snaps there against the Cowboys but recorded just one tackle.

“I was all right. Always room for improvement,” Moon said of his own performance. “Each week is a new opportunity to get better and better. That’s what I’m looking forward to this week.”

Defensive lineman Isaiahh Loudermilk got some reps standing up wide at the linebacker spot. You might see that again on Sunday.

“I’ll be ready for anything. If they need me (outside), of course, I’ll go out there and help wherever I can,” Loudermilk said. “There is really nothing set yet. But there is that chance, so I will be ready just in case.”

Another look that may get rolled out is essentially Watt with three or four defensive linemen. Watt would be at his usual LOLB spot. Then Larry Ogunjobi, Montravious Adams and Keeanu Benton would be the three down linemen in base defense, or two of those three in a subpackage look. And Cam Heyward would be a quasi-lineman/ROLB, just with a wider split and many pure pass-rush duties.

The franchise also signed Ade Ogundeji and Eku Leota.